The Arrival
Mikael Akercolt looked upon the oncoming sign which read "Welcome to Ponyville". The sight made him smile a bit and thought to himself, "It's good to finally be away from everything and have time to loosen up." It wasn't easy telling his band mates in Opeth that he wanted to take a break from music for a while but they understood and supported his situation on the condition that they themselves can also have a break, which Mikael agreed to. He felt Ponyville would be the best place for him because he always found comfort in small towns, mostly due to the small population. It would be more likely for Mikael to have raging fans at his door in a big city like Manehattan than in a small town like Ponyville and would give him the peace and quiet he yearned for. After giving one last happy glance at the sign, he continued to walk towards the small town, dragging his large suitcases with him.
Arriving at Ponyville, Mikael noticed many of the citizens eyeing him but none of them seemed to actually approach him. Mikael figured, being an outsider to this town, the citizens were just curious about the new stallion, but not curious enough to actually approach him. That is... until a jolly pink Earth pony bounced up and down and yelled "Hi there!" right at him. Mikael jumped back a bit surprised at the energetic mare's call, but before he could respond, she was already hopping away from him.
"What a strange mare." Mikael thought to himself. After fully processing what just happened, he continued to trot down the street. He rented out a small residence near the Golden Oak Library, Ponyville's local library, and according to his map, should be right in the middle of the town. Mikael also noticed that a vinyl record store was nearby too and knew he could use this as an opportunity to expand his already large collection. Before heading towards his living space, Mikael decided to give the vinyl shop a quick visit just to see what they had to offer. He arrived at the store relatively quick and started browsing the selection. The store clerk, a white coated blue maned unicorn, asked Mikael if he needed any assistance but told the unicorn he was just browsing. She then went to help another customer, this time, a grey coated black maned earth pony, Mikael had a feeling the two knew each other. Shaking off the thought, he continued browsing and indeed found some nice vinyl albums. He saw new albums from Black Stallion, Metallicolt, Manethrax, and even the new one from his best friend Steven Wilfilly. After a couple more minutes of browsing, he left the shop, saying goodbye to the store clerk and headed to his temporary quarters.
Mikael saw the landlady Rose waiting for him by the house, eager to welcome Mikael as the temporary resident. She had a beige coat with a dark red mane and seemed very happy to see Mikael as he approached the house. "Hello there sir, you are Mr. Akercolt I presume?" Rose asked anxiously.
"Indeed I am, and you must be Rose." Mikael said in his chill voice. "I'd just like to say that I'm very grateful that you were able to let me rent out your house for the month." He reached out his hoof to the mare and she shook it with her own.
"Oh no need to thank me, you're actually doing me a favor. A couple friends and I were planning on visiting Canterlot for a month long flower festival hosted by some of the best florists in Equestria and I'd feel more comfortable knowing that my house is being cared for while I'm away."
"Well I wish you luck in your travels madam." Mikael said bowing a bit. "Before you decide to leave, would you be so kind to show me around the property?"
"Oh with pleasure Mr. Akercolt, just follow me through here and I'll show you everything." Rose explained as she fled into a doorway with Mikael following right behind her. It was a simple house, there was a small kitchen and living room, a bathroom, two bedrooms and a dining room. One thing that caught Mikael's eye from the moment he entered were the loads or flower pictures. "Rose must really love flowers." Mikael thought to himself. It was a relatively small household, the kitchen, dining room, living room and bedrooms were all very tiny, considering that he was more comfortable in his large house in Scandinmania. Rose began to go into detail about each individual room, but Mikael began to disconnect himself from her thorough descriptions and became lost in his thoughts. He questioned whether or not he made the right decision by traveling all this way, away from his band mates, family, and career. Mikael couldn't help but feel he abandoned them, despite the support given to him, but he knew there was no turning back now. He knew had to go through with his choice and live with the aftermath. Mikael ended his thought there, now listening to Rose's tour. She was just now finishing up the tour with the spare room, which she revealed was to be his room.
"... And that's everything I have to show you," Rose proclaimed now finished with the tour. "Do you have any questions about the property?"
"None that I can think of, everything seems to be good." Mikael answered now fully back in reality. "However, I'm not too familiar with the surrounding neighborhood, can you tell me about it?"
"Absolutely! There is a lot to do in this part of Ponyville, we have a cool record shop run by the local DJ, a marketplace for any food you may need, although the fridge is already stocked up and should last you the month so food shouldn't be a concern, there's also the Ponyville Nightclub nearby and of course, the Golden Oak Library right next door which is also the home of Princess Twilight Sparkle."
Mikael's interest was sparked with the mention of the princess. "Wow, really? Princess Sparkle lives right next door?"
Rose shook her head in an affirming motion, "You bet! It's odd though, she's saved Equestria many times over and is a princess, but she stills runs that old library. You would think she would have her own castle by now, or at least live with Celestia and Luna or even Cadence. I'm not too sure if she chose to stay or just isn't getting the opportunity to."
Mikael thought about this for a second. He agreed with the notion that it was odd. In fact, he was so interested that he decided to pay the princess a visit once he settled himself in. "It is very odd indeed." He finally said to Rose, "Well thank you kindly for the tour, now when are you going to leave for your trip?"
"Oh, I was waiting for you to show up and show you around, the train for Canterlot actually leaves in about an hour and me and my friends want to get there early, they're probably waiting for me over there right now so it's good that you came on time." Rose elaborated with a smile.
Mikael smiled, he thought how this would be helpful for him to loosen up and relax in Ponyville, without having many people distracting him. Even though Mikael thought Rose was a very nice mare, he felt he would feel more secure alone. "Oh, well in that case, I guess you shouldn't keep them waiting." Mikael said trying not to sound ungrateful for her assistance.
Rose made a small chuckle to his remark, "Yeah you're probably right. They're going to give me so much crap, but that's friendship for you." A smile came across her face at that remark. "Well if you don't require anymore assistance, I'll get going."
"I have no pressing concerns, you've been very helpful."
"Excellent! Oh, one more thing before I forget, if you do ever need to call me for any reason, you can mail me at this address." Rose handed Mikael a piece of paper, which read the address to her hotel in Canterlot. "There shouldn't be any problem, but just in case, you know where to reach me."
"Thank you, this will be good to have." Mikael proceeded to put the note in one of his pockets, "Now I'm sure your friends would like you to go sooner than later."
"Right of course, I hope you enjoy your stay in our amazing town." Rose then trotted off out the room to her friends, leaving Mikael back to be lost in his thoughts once again.
"I wonder if all the ponies in the town are this kind?" he thought to himself, but then his thoughts went to that strange pink pony he met earlier, "Well, she could still be nice, just... strange." Mikael then brought in all his cases and started to unpack all his belongings. Despite being on a break, he couldn't help but bring a couple of his guitars and some records so he could at least stay in practice, but he promised himself he would only practice in very sparse time intervals. Mikael also brought with him some of his old horror movies that he used to watch all the time and now that he is no longer held down from touring and writing, he can once again enjoy them. Looking down at the movies, a sense of nostalgia almost overcame Mikael that he hadn't felt in years. Before he could set up one of the movies, the thought came to his head telling him that he should go check out the Golden Oak Library. There were a couple books he wanted to take out, if they had it, but he also wanted to meet Princess Twilight. Mikael personally met Celestia, Luna and Cadence at a couple royal concerts, and is quite friendly with them, but has yet to meet Twilight, mostly due to the fact that he never got the chance. She was never said to be at any of his band's concerts, even the royal ones, which Mikael did find odd, but he felt it was probably because she's only been a princess for a couple months, and he has not played a royal concert in that time span. His only hope was that she didn't know of him. Mikael snapped out of his thoughts and proceeded to unpack the rest of his belongings.
The sun was only just starting to set when Mikael left his temporary household and trotted towards the Golden Oak Library. He noticed how lively and bright the town looked under the orange sunlight, the colorful houses were emphasized with the glimmering light shining over them, giving them a very jolly quality to them. He also noticed how happy and energized the other ponies around him were, there was just so much positive energy in the air that he had to smile. Mikael hadn't smiled like that since the day his daughter Melinda was born. He then started to think back to those memories and it made him miss them even more.
"Just one month, and you'll see them again." Mikael whispered to himself, trying not to dwell on the memories. After snapping out of his thoughts completely, he noticed he was standing right in front of the door to the library. After a couple seconds of staring aimlessly at the door, Mikael raised his hoof slowly and knocked on the door, giving it three quick taps. It wasn't long till the door opened revealing a short purple and green dragon looking up at him.
"Um... hello?" the dragon said to Mikael studying him. Mikael would've been more concerned if a dragon was greeting him if he didn't already know this was Twilight's assistant Spike.
"Hello there, sorry to knock on your door unannounced, you must be Spike then right?" Mikael asked already anticipating the answer.
A smirk went across Spike's face, "The one and only number one assistant at your service." He stood in a very self-indulgent stance in front of Mikael and he would usually have a problem with that, but since he's aware of Spike's young age, he let it slide.
"Great, my name is Mikael and I was just wondering if the library is open, I would like to browse some of the books that are available."
Spike almost looked dumbfounded, as if he thought Mikael was messing with him and then burst out laughing. This perplexed Mikael, he wasn't sure what he said that could have caused such a reaction. After a couple long seconds of awkward laughter, the young dragon looked up at Mikael and saw his confusion. "Wait, you were serious?" Spike finally asked reddening a bit.
"Of course I'm serious." Mikael paused, still a little confused, "Why wouldn't I be?"
Spike let out a slow an awkward laugh, "I'm sorry, I must look like a complete fool to you. It's just that, I don't remember the last time somepony casually came here looking for a book." He chuckled to himself a bit, "Sometimes I forget this is an actual library and not just my home."
"So where do most ponies get their books if they don't come here?" Mikael asked, now starting get a grasp of everything.
"It's probably because of the Equestrianet, you can order anything off of that with just the click of a button. Ponyville is just starting to have access to it, it's really cool." Spike paused for a bit after saying that and then put his hand on Mikael's shoulder, "Now I shouldn't keep you waiting now, all the books are right this way." Spike opened the door all the way to reveal shelves upon shelves of books stacked on top and next to each other.
Mikael's jaw almost hit the floor after taking in the sight, he loved that there was so much knowledge for him to consume, but he had no idea where to start. "Wow." Mikael uttered still hardly containing himself.
"Eh, you get used to it." Spike responded, "I'll get Twilight, she should be able to help you find something."
"That would be great thank you," Mikael said, eyes still glued to the book shelves. He slowly approached it to get a better look, he saw that there was truly a diverse selection of books to choose from, which he felt justified the sheer size of the shelves. There were books ranging from magic spells, to song books, to some fantasy novels, Mikael's favorite. Before he could investigate further, he heard the call of a mare from his left.
"Hello there sir, Spike told me that you needed some assistance." The voice said, Mikael looked up to see a lavender alicorn walking down a flight of stairs towards him and at that moment, he knew it was Princess Twilight Sparkle. Mikael started to bow as she approached but she said, "Oh, that's not necessary, but thanks for the thoug..." Twilight ended her speech there as Mikael noticed her studying him, "Wait, you look familiar, do I know you from somewhere?" She finally asked.
Mikael's heart stopped at that point, he thought of how he might have underestimated his fame in regards to Twilight's inexperience as a princess, but he had to keep his cool. "That's highly unlikely princess, I just arrived in Ponyville today, you might be thinking of someone else." Mikael said confidently, trying to cast the suspicion of his identity away.
"No, I'm sure I've seen you before," she then paused for a moment and then Mikael saw her eyes flash right at him, "Wait, yes I do know who you are. You're Mikael Akercolt of Opeth. Oh my gosh, this is amazing, I'm a huge fan of your work."
"Dammit." Mikael said to himself stepping back, he was very annoyed with the fact that he was discovered on only his first day at Ponyville and really wanted to just leave, but there was no point. He'd already been discovered, there was no point running from it.
"I'm sorry, was it something I said, I didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable." Twilight said trying to make him feel better.
"No it's okay, you didn't do anything," Mikael returned in a defeated voice. "I'm actually here in Ponyville on break, our last tour was extremely exhausting and we all decided to go on a vacation, they went to Canterlot and I went to Ponyville, as you can see."
"Well that explains why you arrived here, but it doesn't explain your response when I recognized you."
"Right, well a vacation for me involves trying my best to avoid any sort of attention. The reason I chose Ponyville was because it's a remote location where 10000 screaming fans aren't at my door step. Clearly, I have underestimated my fame."
"Oh," Twilight did a slow chuckle, "Oops... well, at least you picked the right town. There are very few people who live here that even know of you, besides me and some close friends."
"Well, that makes me feel a little better, but may I please make a request?" Twilight nodded at his question, "I still don't want to be discovered so, can you please keep my presence to yourself, even if it is just a few choice friends."
"Alright, I understand, I'll do it, but can I ask you something before I say yes?"
"What is it?"
Twilight used her horn to levitate a very familiar looking plastic case, Mikael knew exactly where this is going, "Can you sign my copy of Blackwater Park?"
Mikael smiled at the album, Blackwater Park was one of his more well-known albums, but was one of his favorites. The making of that album was a magical experience for him, having grown very close to his bandmates at the time, he still keeps in contact to those who left afterwards. After a tiny bit a reminiscing, Mikael picked up a sharpie from a nearby counter with his mouth and signed his name on the luminous plastic disc. "There, now that you have your signature, do I have your word?" he finally asked.
Twilight looked simply overjoyed looking down at the signature, but after a couple more seconds of looking down at the album, she looked back at Mikael and said, "Of course, thank you so much. This does mean a lot to me."
Mikael couldn't help but blush, he's heard praise for his work many times before, but usually it was in concert atmospheres when there are waves of people chanting his and his band’s name. He felt there was something different when the praise is more conversational and intimate, he always saw it as a more honest form. "I thank you for your appreciation. Even on vacation, my work has always caught up with me." Mikael replied. "Now that we have gotten that out of the way, I'm still curious about what books you have here."
Twilight's eyes widened a bit, as if she was just now remembering why he was here in the first place, "Right of course, as you can probably tell, there is a wide selection available. Are you looking for anything specific?"
Mikael thought for a minute and knew exactly what he was going to say, "Can you show me your fantasy books?"
Mikael reentered the household with a stack of different fantasy books in his hands and placed them on a nearby wooden counter top. "This should last me the month," Mikael thought to himself after putting down the stack of books. He then sat on the nearby couch and stared at the sleek brown walls, now finally able to relax. It was pitch black outside and it was incredibly quite, very different from the energetic atmosphere that was present earlier in the evening, however it didn't feel deathly or hollow to Mikael, it felt tranquil and serene to him. He's always felt comfort in the darkness of night, most of his inspiration has come from staying up late and looking at the moon and stars. His thoughts then went to Twilight, he marveled at how incredibly kind ponies in this town were, especially her, he saw why Celestia picked her as her star pupil and as an alicorn princess. Mikael is still a little nervous that she is aware of him, but trusts that she'll keep her word and not tell anyone. Mikael's eye then caught his stack of horror movies and remembered that he planned on watching one of them.
Slowly getting up from the soft green couch, Mikael slowly trotted to the stack and started to sort through them trying to find the right movie. After a couple minutes of sorting, he was able to narrow it down to two films, Hellcolt and Nightmare Night III: Season of the Witch, but couldn't decide. He reached into his pocket and found a bit, and had the idea to flip a coin to decide. "Heads for Hellcolt and tails for Nightmare Night III." Mikael thought to himself assigning the two movies. He put the bit on the side of his hoof and proceeded to flip it when it made a metal clang on the wooden coffee table and started to roll on its side in a circular motion until it finally collapsed on itself.
A smile went across Mikael's face as he saw the end result of his test, "Looks like I'm watching Hellcolt tonight." Mikael took out the disk from DVD case and put it in the video player and waited for the screen to cut on the movie. His thoughts once again went to Twilight, and it was one, simple, almost trivial, thought. "I wonder if Twilight enjoys horror movies?"
